Hi, I've always been interested in joining the army, but have been put off because of my fitness

Hi there, Thank you for your question and for being so open and honest. I’ll talk about fitness first. Please don’t be anxious about this. Everyone has to start someone and it is great that you have recently stopped smoking, that is a huge step and will make a really significant difference. It will take a little time to build your lung capacity up again so don’t be too hard on yourself. Take a look on the Army website, it has lots of advice on fitness and provides a progressive programme which will get you to the standard you need to be at to join. Then when you’re in basic training the programme is designed to get you fitter, it is a progressive programme again and is aimed to develop you, no one there wants to see you fail. With regards to the social anxiety, only you will know the answer to that. Perhaps go to an Army Careers Office and have a chat through and see how it makes you feel. I hope that has gone some way to answer your question but if not please feel free to come back to me. Katie